


Use Your Words

by isabeau25



Series: Comfortember [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Comfortember 2020, Fluff, Gen, Prompt: Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:08:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27466966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau25/pseuds/isabeau25
Summary: Nate's "no stabbing" request makes it much more stressful for Parker to deal with unwanted attention. Luckily, Eliot is there to be scary.
Series: Comfortember [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2012851
Comments: 12
Kudos: 110





	Use Your Words

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [ Comfortember ](https://comfortember.tumblr.com/post/628381629921017856/comfortember) prompt: Rescue. Not sure how many of these prompts I'll do, and I'll probably jump around different fandoms a bit, but it's been a while since I've written anything, so it's nice to get back to it at least a little.

Eliot was quite content sitting on his bar stool, chatting up the two girls next to him while he sipped his beer. One of them was a vet tech and the other was an interpreter for the Portuguese consulate, both of them were slightly tipsy. The vet tech kept going into excruciating detail on surgical procedures for ferrets, particularly into the specialized equipment they used for it, which was fascinating, and the interpreter kept telling him stupid Portuguese puns she had heard from the diplomats and getting the goofiest grin on her face when she didn’t have to explain it to him for him to understand how terrible they were.

Sophie and Nate were in a booth in the back corner, fighting or flirting or whatever it was they called it. It all kind of looked the same to Eliot. Hardison had stuck around for a while, then gone upstairs to call his Nana before it got too late. Eliot assumed Parker had gone up with him. She liked celebrating with the team well enough, but she wasn’t much for hanging around other people once the celebration tapered off. He had lost track of her about the time Hardison had left, which wasn’t that unusual. Out of everyone on the team, Parker was the hardest to keep track of in a crowd.

Which was why he almost knocked over his beer when Parker slammed into his side like a missile, wrapping her hands around his arm hard enough to bruise.

“You’re my boyfriend,” she said with an odd note of demand in her voice.

Eliot took in the wild look in her eyes, patted the hand digging into his bicep, then gave the girls on the bar stools beside him an easy smile, “excuse me ladies.”

He led Parker over to a quiet spot behind the billiard tables before prying her hands off his arm, then leaned against the wall casually, effectively blocking the view of her from the rest of the room.

“Why am I your boyfriend?” he asked, “I thought Hardison was your boyfriend, or whatever you’re calling it.”

“Hardison doesn’t look scary,” Parker folded her arms across her chest and hunched her shoulders, “I need a boyfriend who looks scary because Nate said I shouldn’t stab people just for talking to me…”

“I’m pretty sure that only applies to when we’re running cons,” Eliot tried to interject, but Parker kept going.

“And Sophie said I should use my words first, but I did and he still kept talking to me, and then his friend with the oily hair started talking to me too, and I want them to stop talking to me and looking at me and… and… being there,” Parker was breathing hard by the time she finished, practically trembling with the particular frustration of not knowing what to do with people when she had been told not to do what she really wanted to.

“Hey,” Eliot dropped his hands onto her shoulders, “who do you need me to scare?”

All of the tension dropped out of Parker’s shoulders, and she pointed to a pair of drunks who had sauntered over to the girls Eliot had been talking to. They kept casting fugitive glances in Parker and Eliot’s direction. The vet tech made a motion towards one of them as if she was cutting something open with a scalpel, probably him, and he looked a little green in response. Neither girl looked enamored with the attention.

“Come on,” Eliot dropped his arm around Parker’s shoulders, pulling her safely against his side, and she relaxed into him, “let’s go scare some drunks.”

Said drunks twitched nervously when Eliot walked up to them.

“There’s no rules against talking to pretty girls,” the one with slightly less oily hair said defensively before Eliot had even said anything.

“You should leave,” Eliot suggested with a menacing smile.

“We can be here if we want,” the oiler of the two tried to square up his shoulders and look bigger, “you don’t own the place.”

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Nate and Sophie had stopped their flirt-fighting to watch, ready to step in if they needed to. They wouldn’t need to though. Eliot probably wasn’t even going to need to punch anyone.

“You know, noses just break so easily,” Eliot cocked his head to the side just slightly, “there’s this little bone in there called the vomer. Usually it just breaks, but if you hit it just right, you can drive it right through the sinuses and into the brain cavity. It’s a pretty cool trick, actually. Takes a lot of practice.” 

The drunks exchanged nervous glances. 

“Wanna see?” Eliot asked cheerfully. 

Parker hid her giggles against Eliot’s shoulder as the drunks decided discretion was the better part of valor and beat a trail to the door. Across the room, Nate smirked at him and Sophie smiled, then they went back to whatever it was that passed as quality time for them. 

Eliot’s previous conversation partners seemed just about done with the attention of strangers, so he gave them a friendly wave and walked away, Parker gliding happily at his side. 

“So what are we doing now?” Parker asked. 

_Going home_ seemed like a reasonable response, but Parker was still full of jittery energy, and it wasn’t that late yet.

“Come on,” Eliot started towards the door, “let’s stop by the store and grab what we need to make brownies, then we can see if Hardison wants to watch a movie or something.”

“The fudgy kind with chocolate chips?” Parker latched onto his hand eagerly. 

“Sure,” Eliot shrugged.

‘And peanut butter frosting?” Parker all but vibrated with excitement.

“Have you eaten anything that wasn’t sugar today?” Eliot asked as they stepped outside.

“Frosted flakes are made of corn,” Parker offered, “that makes them a vegetable.”

“We’ll pick up something to make for dinner, too.” Eliot gave a long suffering sigh.

“Waffles!” Parker cheered.

“I’m making you brownies. We’re having stir fry for dinner,” Eliot said firmly. 

“But peanut butter frosting!” Parker swung their hands together. 

“Yes, Parker,” Eliot smiled despite himself.

All things considered, it wasn’t the worst way to spend an evening, and Eliot hadn’t even had to break any noses to get there.


End file.
